


Magician and Mother

by HanaHimus



Series: Persona Week 2k17 [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: (Same idea as my other Yuka is Ryuji's Mom AU only different events happen), Alternate Universe, Gen, Persona Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Yuka Ayase was no longer Yuka Ayase. Now Yuka Sakamoto, she reflects on where her life went and the wildest time of her life... All because her son was acting so strange.(Persona Week Day 1: Magician/Persona 1)





	Magician and Mother

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY PERSONA WEEK! IT'S LIKE. MIDNIGHT HERE AND I'M EXCITED FOR THIS WHEEEEE.
> 
> Um, anyway, love the Persona series, so have some P1/P5 to start my stories for the week off!

Yuka was starting to think that maybe she’d gotten married too early. Married right out of high school to a man with a nice big paycheck, only for him to turn out to be… Less than ideal. Oh, who was she kidding thinking like that? He’d been an abusive asshole. The only good thing to come out of him was Ryuji.

Everything had seemed like it would be great, then again… That was usually how she felt about things. Living in the moment, using her husband’s paycheck pretty damn freely… Then she’d had Ryuji. Then her husband had lost his job. 

Things had gotten worse from there, but Ryuji was a good kid through it all. She still remembered when he came home, a grin on his face and a stuffed dolphin in his arms. He told her that he totally bartered the price down, but she could tell he was lying.

Everything Ryuji had done was cute. he wasn’t the brightest in class, but he did his best. He did great on the track team, too. He was basically nothing like she was in high school; messing around and getting bad grades… Hell, the only time she felt she did anything worthwhile was when that thing with Maki happened…

She’d only done something great in a fantastical setting. Ryuji was doing his best in the most simple of setting. Complete opposites.

Then, Ryuji hit the temporary advisor of the track teams and things fell apart. She’d apologized to the teachers waiting for her, head towards the ground. She was angry, her kid was a good boy, if he’d hit someone, they’d deserve it, dammit! The damn Kamoshida had even made an offhand comment about the dye still coming out of her hair. She’d let it come out at that point.

She’d apologized to Ryuji on their way home, actually meaning it this time. Maybe her being the only one around was the reason it came to this. Maybe her bad habits were still there, stronger than she thought they were. Maybe there was a reason people looked down on single mothers like her…

It didn’t help that after that he started becoming more and more like her. He started bleaching his hair, wear a normal shirt instead of the proper one for school, started failing more often, and almost always ended up being late. The only thing that never changed about him was he always was a mama’s boy.

He always seemed so upset, though. It was like track had been one of the few things he really enjoyed and he’d lost it. She didn’t know why, but it pissed Yuka off. Her son was starting down the same path she’d been on for a while, and she hated it.

...Then he started acting different. He seemed so happy, would talk about his friends. He seemed to be doing at least a little better on his exams too. He’d be stressed sometimes, sure, but he was so much happier… And then the Phantom Thieves leader killed himself.

Ryuji suddenly became stressed, on edge. He seemed so upset and Yuka felt like she wasn’t going to be able to do anything again. She had to at least try, though, no matter how hard it was. She needed to be a better mother.

“Ryujiiii~” She walked over to him and pulled on his cheek, her ponytail bouncing a bit. She still used the same green scrunchies to keep her hair up, at least around the house.

“M-mom!” Ryuji frowned and jumped up. “W-what d’you want?!”

Yuka smiled and held up a book. “Yearbook from high school. I wanna show you some people and tell you a story.”

“You want to show me dumb 90s haircuts?”

“Says Mr. Macaroni Boy.”

“H-hey! You’re the worst!” He said that, but threw himself onto the couch as Yuka moved next to him. “Fine, just hurry it up!”

She opened the yearbook and began flipping through the pages, saying small things about random student before her finger stopped on a certain someone’s face. “Naorin…”

“Naoya Toudou?” Ryuji read the name, frowning. “Did I use the right pronunciation…?”

Yuka laughed a bit and smiled. “You did. Naorin was what we called him in our little friend group! He was kinda quiet and had a bad habit of playing with his earring, but he was a great guy.”

“Yeah? Maybe I should get a piercing too.”

Yuka glared at him. “Don’t you dare!”

She scanned the page and pointed to another photo. “That was me back in high school! Most people called me Ayase back then.”

“...Was that your last name, then?”

“Yep.”

Ryuji frowned and shook his head. “Why don’t you go back to that last name? I mean, I doubt you want that old man’s name anymore.”

Yuka blinked a few times before smiling and kissing his cheek. “You dork! I don’t mind having the same last name as my baby boy!”

“M-mom!” Ryuji pulled away and shook his head. “Anyway, seeing that makes me glad you don’t dye your hair anymore.”

“Oh?” She rose an eyebrow.

“If you did that and wore it in two ponytails you’d look too much like Ann…” Ryuji shivered. “My mom looking like my friend…No thanks.”

Yuka pulled the scrunchie out of her hair and held it up into the hairstyle she used to wear. “Oh yeah? Maybe I should do it to mess with you!”

“Mom!”

“Whaaaat? I think it could be fun!”

“Not at all!” Ryuji shook his head and looked back to the book. “Show me some more friends!”

“Got it, got it…” She flipped around a bit, just to mess with him. She’d let the idea of her looking like his friend sit just a little longer. “Oh! This is Reiji Kido. Poor guy had a loooot of issues when we were in high school.”

“Really?” Ryuji looked over her shoulder and frowned. “Huh…”

“He was popular too. Kinda scary to a lot of people.” Yuka tapped her chin and sighed. “Heard he’s got a kid. Dunno if he ever married the mom, but they live together, at least.”

“Huh...can’t see him as having a kid type.”

Yuka snorted. “Doubt anyone would’ve seen me as the having a kid type back then, either.” She broke a lot of hearts back then, after all.

“...Mom…”

“Anyway!” She looked around again and pointed. “Oh, oh! This is Mark… Or, if you wanna know his actual name, Masao Inaba.”

“Why are you so excited about him?”

“He kinda reminds me of you, I guess? He was the class clown, kinda hot headed…” She pinched his cheek. “And a total mama’s boy!”

“Stop that!” Ryuji was red now, someone was embarrassed, huh? “Um...w-who’s that?! She’s cute!”

Yuka glanced over at the image and smiled. “Oh! Elly. Eriko Kirishima… She was always so graceful and cool!”

“Kinda reminds me of Makoto’s sis…”

“Who?”  
“U-uh! Don’t worry about it!” He shook his head. “Anyone else who was part of your friend group?”

“Yukino!” She pointed at another girl and smiled. “Yukino Mayuzumi.”

“Whoa, she’s pretty too…” He frowned. “So far the girls are pretty and then the guys have...that Mark guy.”

“What’s that mean?” She rose an eyebrow.

“The other guys are pretty easy on the eyes, not the Mark guy…” Ryuji shook his head. “I dunno.”

“Doubt Brown’ll help your thoughts then…” Yuka pointed to another boy. “Hidehiko Uesugi, that guy was something else sometimes.”

“Oh wow, he’s… Yeah….”

“Then there’s Nanjo. Kei Nanjo, he always looked like a total dweeb.” She stuck her tongue out and shook her head. “Rich kids sometimes…”

“Rich kids, huh?” Ryuji started to hum as Yuka looked around the page. There was only one person left and this one would lead her into her story. “Did you go to school with a lot of them, or just him?”

“...There.” She pointed at the page. “That’s Maki Sonomura… Maki…”

“Mom?”

“Hey, Ryuji? Promise not to call an old lady crazy when she tells you a story from high school?”

“Y-yeah, sure, but…” Ryuji shook his head. “What’re you gonna even say?”

“There was a time when our school was taken over by a demon...and the town we were in ended up being the ideal place Maki had made for herself… You see, Maki was super sick, she was almost always in the hospital.” Yuka frowned. “I don’t understand it well, but… I guess there was some system she was hooked up to that made it possible.”

“Mom…”

“That’s not it.” She shook her head and frowned. “We played a game before this all started. It was called Persona…”

She glanced over and saw that Ryuji’s eyes had gone wide at the name. “So, you’ve heard of the game, huh? Maybe you’ve heard what can happen when you play it… Either way, that game… It gave us access to… These things. They shared a name with the game…”

“Mom...are you sayin’ you used a Persona?” The way he asked it made it sound like he was taking this completely seriously.

She nodded, frowning. “Yeah, but only when that was all happening. I haven’t used it since, don’t even know if I could anymore…”

She paused and looked up at him. “Ryuji--”

Before she could finish what she was saying, Ryuji pulled her into a hug, shaking. “Mom...I promise. I promise I’ll make sure you’re livin’ in a world where you never have to use it again. I promise…”

She blinked a few times, tears welling in her eyes. Where there it was, her son was doing more than her. Yuka wasn’t protecting her son, he was protecting her… He had grown so much, he was turning into a man.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sniffled. “You’re such a good boy, you know that?”

“I love you mom.”

**Author's Note:**

> Personaweek is on tumblr @personaweek! Feel free to check it out for the works of others, I'll be reblogging it all there, after all!


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